Many people use online wish lists to facilitate gift giving. Especially in families that are geographically distributed, referring to online wish lists is a convenient way to select and give gifts that are of specific interest to the receiving party. Individuals maintain online wish lists specifying items that they would like to receive. Typically, these items are available for purchase online, through the wish list. Those who would like to purchase a gift for a party with an online wish list can simply select an item from the list for online purchase. They are ensured of selecting a gift the receiving party actually wants and does not yet have, as the receiving party put the item on the list. When an item is purchased from the list, that item is typically automatically removed, to avoid duplicate purchases of the same item.
Of course, children are often given gifts. Children today often manage their own online wish lists. When children add items to their wish lists, they often add items that their parents have not approved, and do not want them to have. For example, suppose a child sees an advertisement for a BB gun and ads it to his wish list. The child's grandparents could then purchase the BB gun as a gift for the child's birthday. This type of scenario can create a non-optimal situation whenever a gift purchased for a child conflicts with parental policy. While such gifts can often be returned and exchanged, this requires extra work for the parents, delay for the child, and often some amount of conflict between the two. On the other hand, if parents manage wish lists for their children, the items that the parents add will often not be of genuine interest to the children.
It would be desirable to limit a child's online wish list to those items that are both selected by the child and in compliance with parental policy.